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About knitting

Everything about knitting

Why do we knit?

Nowadays world brings huge demands to people. For most of us days pass by very quickly. We do not see the sun in the early morning when we go to work. And we do not see it on our way back home in the evening. It’s going on from day to day. We do not notice what is happening around us: was the sun bright this morning, either the leaves became yellow or the first grass was growing. Crazy rhythm of life, flapping takes us into routine so quickly. So as opposite we need to spend some time alone with our thoughts we need some peace of mind. Most of us are searching for the ways to relax such as yoga or meditation. But the other ones begin to CREATE.
Knitting is the unique way of self-expression, redirect the attention, it’s the way to fill your life with new colours. We get huge amount of positive emotions when we create. Knitting is like some way of meditation because we get relaxation and calm while knitting.
Why does knitting attract us? Each thing made by your own hands is the masterpiece which helps to express your individuality, express yourself and exclude you from others. In every case it’s a unique product which has its own character, because it has in it all positive energy, all thoughts, it keeps the warmth of your arms. And all of it we miss in surrounding of impersonal, lifeless things.

How to take care of knitted things?

Knitted things need special care. We need to follow main rules if we want knitted clothing to keep their shape, picture relief.Washing of knitted things

Knitted things should be washed by hands or by washing machine with program for wool washing.

It shouldn’t be rubbed hardly, water should be pressed down gently, do not twist hardly.

Use soft laundering detergents without bleaching ingredients, best of all special ones for wool. And it doesn’t matter what is the composition of material.

Water temperature shouldn’t be over 30 degrees.

Colored knitting should be washed in cold water. While washing for the first time knitted things can be soaked in delicate acid or salt solution in warm water.

Drying of knitted things

1. To avoid the deformation of knitted things during drying, before it you should bring the shape to them.
2. The best way to dry garments on plane surface.
3. If you are going to dry the product on the dryer, hang it on the thick part of the dryer to prevent a local inflection breaks.
4. Do not dry knitting on heaters.

Knitted things which need special care

Products knitted from very bright colours, from printed yarn, yarn for decorations, or made from contrast colours, for example, from white and black must be washed only by hands and only in cold water. The knitting will not lose colours if you add some salt to water.

When you wash knitting from merino wool, mohair, cashmere, avoid big temperature differences that will prolong the “life” or your knitting.

And finally:
Fold up knitting and put in wardrobe. Hanged can be only garments without sleeves and made from linen or cotton.

If you follow this advice, your knitting will bring joy to you for a long time.

Everything about yarns

Wool

Wool fibres obtained from the fur of sheep and other animals: goats, dogs, camel and rabbits. The fur of some animals has special characteristics and received a special name camel wool – from camel, alpaca - wool from llama, angora – is the wool of Angora rabbit, mohair – wool from goats, cashmere - wool of mountain goats. The advantage of wool is the ability to retain heat, hygroscopicity, good elasticity. Products made of wool badly crushed. Drawback of wool yarn is - in the process of wearing the surface of product could be covered with pills. It depends on the thickness of yarn - the stronger it curled, the less it full. Manufacturers eliminate this shortcoming in two ways. Firstly, the wool fibres treated with special tools. Secondly, by adding to the wool fibres artificial fibres, usually acrylic, or fibres of vegetable origin. The addition of these fibres can not only reduce this drawback, but also makes the yarn much cheaper.

Viscose

Viscose -is the oldest man-made fibre got in 19 century. It can be called the most "natural" yarn from all artificial. It is made both from natural materials and synthetic ones. Viscose is produced from cellulose which is considered to be natural by its nature. The positive qualities of viscose is the fact that it does not absorb moisture, breathable, and does not accumulate static electricity, it is pleasant to the touch, comfortable to skin, has delightful glitter and can be dyed in vivid bright colours. Also it is perfect for people with sensitive skin. On the other hand, the finished garment is too capricious, because if it is damaged, product is easily decomposed. In the process of wearing even after washing garments knitted from 100% viscose can enlarge the size. Therefore, it is mixed with other natural and durable fibres such as cotton, wool and mohair. So, you have to knit a sample from the viscose yarn and pull it strongly to understand how the product can increase in the length. Choose the pattern that has higher thickness and smaller openwork. Knit and take into consideration that ready garment will stretch under its own weight because of the properties of viscose.

Silk

Silk is obtained by the caterpillar of the silkworm. Thin natural silk yarn obtained unwinding the silk cocoons. Natural silk has a high elasticity. Natural silk products in the process of wearing almost do not crush. The exceptional feature of silk fiber is its beautiful view with a pleasant matte luster. It bears mention the fact that the silk yarn has highly hygroscopic. Natural silk thread is the following colors: pure white, white with a tinge, pink, green, and yellow with different shades. The greatest value has pure white thread. White colour is better coloring in various colors, and does not require bleaching. Because of the high cost of raw materials, natural silk yarn’s extremely rare. As a rule, silk fiber is included in the yarn with wool, acrylic, mohair or viscose.

Fascinating facts:

The length of the silk thread is 1500m and has a very small cross section.

For treating of the threads into the fibre necessary to join the threads of 6-8 cocoons.

The country of origin of the silkworm larvae is China.

At first the silk cocoons were mentioned in 2000 B.C.

Mohair

Mohair yarn can be compared with a light cloud. However, it is a mistake to think that mohair is any fuzzy yarns. The fibre of mohair yarn is the hair of the angora goats. The exceptional feature of the mohair fibre: fibre itself split into separate hairs. Because of this, it’s impossible to produce absolute mohair yarn. Now the maximum of mohair in the yarn can’t be more than 90%. Mohair fibres are long and very fluffy, well-dyed. A garment made from mohair yarn is light and very warm. To show the peculiarities of mohair better to knit garments with thick needles. To reduce the cost of mohair yarn the wool or acrylic threads are added. You have to be careful grooming the garments made from mohair yarn. Wash them at room temperature with a mild detergent.

Fascinating facts:

1. The fluff of angora goats reaches twenty-five centimetres length.
2. Motherland of angora goat is Turkish province of Angora. Therefore, mohair yarn is often confused with angora yarn obtained from Angora rabbit.
3. The most expensive and beautiful mohair is obtained from the first shearing of the young Angora goats. That’s why it was called «Kid Mohair». Mohair yarn is very thin and soft.

Acrylic

Acrylic - is an artificial fiber made from natural gas. The exceptional property of acrylic is its strength, resistance to formation of pills. It is easy in knitting and crocheting as well as on the knitting machines. Acrylic fiber dyes very well and has excellent bright colors. One of the advantages of acrylic fiber is its volume. Because of the volume of acrylic yarn looks like wool and called “an artificial wool”. As for disadvantages of acrylic fibers it is a low hygroscopic.

Acrylic fiber is used either as independent yarn or it is added in the yarn with wool or mohair fibers to improve the yarn quality. Thanks to the neighborhood of the acrylic fiber blended yarn gets all necessary qualities. Firstly, the yarn is exposed to less formation of pills. Secondly, the garments become more durable. Thirdly, the addition of acrylic fibers let the yarn to keep the shape of the garments.

Angora

Angora fiber is produced by Angora rabbit. Agora is known for its lightness, softness and fluffiness. It is also known for its silky texture. Garments knitted from angora yarn are very warm. But it has unfortunate and well-known property of ‘’peel’’, and to prevent this is impossible. The embarrassing lack of this yarn is the fact that rabbit down - not permanently fixed in the yarn. This is due to feature of the rabbit down. Therefore angora wool is never used in its pure form – the yarn is mixed with normal or merino wool, as well as acrylic. These garments require the careful hand washing with mild detergent.

Interesting facts:

1.The most famous manufacturer of angora down is China. It produces up to eight thousand tons of raw materials a year.
2. During the year from one rabbit can be obtained from one hundred and fifty to five hundred grams approximately.
3. The length of downy hair of Angora rabbit is twenty centimeters.
4. The most distributed Angora rabbits are of four types of color: white, black, gray and blue.

Cashmere

Cashmeres or cashmere - fiber, which is produced from fluff and undercoat of wild mountain goats. To get this fuzz, wild goats comb out manually. To get good cashmere fiber fluff the chest and tummy of the goat combed out. The uniqueness of cashmere is that its products are very warm and at the same time unusually light and delicate.
Royal Yarn- so called cashmere. And it is no coincidence. Yarn of pure cashmere is very expensive. And due to this fact yarn with amazing characteristics can only be from those of wild goats that do not allow them to be tame. Habitats of these wild mountain goats are found in the mountains of Mongolia and China. All attempts to breed them in other places ended in failure. Pooh gets tough, losing its lightness.

Interesting facts:

1.Wild mountain goat Carpa Hirtus live in climates with fluctuating temperatures, reaching almost a hundred degrees. In winter, the temperature drops to -50 ° C, and in summer rises to +40 ° C. However, such differences are easily transferred by animals. Each year they grow a fur coat, which consists of two layers: a very thin and very warm down - the bottom layer, and coarse long hair - the top layer.
2. The goats are of four colors - white, black, gray and brown. So, the natural colors of cashmere – are these four colors. The most expensive is considered to be white fuzz. It has the best quality, and can be dyed in different colors.
3. Basic habitat of goats, Mongolia and China. Goats that live in Turkey, Afghanistan and Iran have dirtier, darker and thicker fluff.

Cotton

Cotton - a natural yarn, which is obtained from the balls of cotton plants. Cotton was known in India before our era. In Europe the cotton appeared in England in the late 18th century; in 1772. Cotton yarn is very tough. It is caused by the peculiarities of the filaments. Single cotton fibres is not strong, curling fibres are straighten and twisted together, they form a strong, smooth thread. The advantages of cotton is that it is quickly absorbs moisture and has a good ability to pass air. Products related to cotton are pleasant to the body. The yarn is perfect for light summer dresses. Cotton is not elastic fibre. So you can easily knit from a pattern, which requires yarn to retain its shape. In the cotton yarn is often added acrylic or viscose to give more flexibility.
One of the disadvantages of cotton yarn is the fact that it shrinks. Be careful if you are going to knit tight-fitting garments from 100% cotton. After washing you may find that you will never wear it.
Mercerized cotton is a special kind of cotton yarn that is more lustrous. Mercerization is the process of treatment cotton with sodium hydroxide, it made fibre swell, stronger, better and easier absorb water and easier dyed.

Merino wool

Merino wool is obtained from a special breed of sheep, merino. To produce merino wool the sheep are sheared from the animals’ withers only. The wool there is very soft. Only on the withers the wool is very thin and fine-fleeced. The thickness of this unique wool less than 24 microns. In addition, it differs from other types of wool with extraordinary resilience. This elasticity is a result of the growth characteristics of the sheep wool. On the withers and tummy of the merino sheep natural curls are formed.

Natural colour of merino wool is white. It is long and has an exceptional quality: it does not irritate the skin. Merino wool can be recommended for knitting baby things and for people with sensitive skin. Garments from it will be pleasant and will not cause itching and irritation. The yarn does not require any additions because it is faultless itself. If the other fibres added, it means that manufacturer wants to reduce the price of the yarn. As a rule, proximity of other fibres worsens its quality.

Alpaca

Alpaca yarn got its name from domesticated species of American camelid, a small llama. This yarn has a very long fibre. However, it is so tough that pure alpaca yarn is extremely rare because of lack of demand for it. As a rule, alpaca yarn is used with different types of hair (usual or merino) or with artificial yarn (acrylic). Tough long fibre give alpaca wool the main advantage – on the garments knitted from this wool the pills do not form. Alpaca wool has the largest range of colours – more than 12 shades. The fur of alpaca does not contain organic fats, including lanolin. So, the dust mites won’t be able to exist there. As a result, people who suffer from allergy to dust mites feel themselves well in the garments knitted from alpaca wool.

Linen fibre

Linen fibre is made from Flax. Thanks to the vegetable fibre which contains silica, flax yarn has unique properties. Linen yarn is very strong and resistant to rotting, does not lose its shape. Garments knitted from this yarn shrink a little. Moreover, they quickly dry, and absorb moisture. On the other hand, it is difficult to dye and bleach this yarn. That is why linen yarn usually produced of soft grey or beige natural shades.

This is interesting!

The flax seeds contain up to 50% of oil, which is the record for the content of polyunsaturated acids. This fatty acid is delightful natural remedy for treating diseases associated with formation of blood clots, and breach of blood flow.

Technical oil and high quality varnish are made from linseeds, and varnish is used by artists to dilute the oil paints.

Camel wool

Camel wool has a unique in its structure hair – it is hollow. This feature of camel’s hair gives it a special lightness and extra insulation, if we compare it with other types of wool. The fibre of camel yarn can shoot static electricity, are able to repel dust, not electrified. Camel wool is not allergenic. Camel hair, unlike other types of wool provides dry heat because of high hygroscopic.

It is interesting:

Camel tolerates the lack of water. Being without water a camel can lose up to 40% of its weight.

Camel can drink about 60 litres of water at once.

Camel wool contains lanoline. Lanolin has a beneficial effect on the skin, muscles and joins. Lanolin is absorbed by skin at 36-37°C.

Polyamides (PA)- a group of plastics commercially available under the trade marks: “Capron”, “Nylon”, “Enid”, etc. Polyamides are crystallising polymers.

Properties of various polyamides are very close. They are tough materials with high tensile strength and high resistance to wear. Have softening point and can withstand steam sterilization up to 140° C, easily painted. Polyamides remain flexible at low temperatures. However, polyamides have rather high water absorption, but after drying the initial level of properties recovered.

Fancy yarn

The name “fancy” appeared because of unusual form of the yarn. All the fancy yarn in common is unusual! This is not the usual eye smooth tread. There is a huge variety of types and forms of yarns. Manufacturers are constantly growing the collection of fancy yarns with new models. We can highlight some of the most popular ones:

Ribbon yarn – resembles a flat smooth matte or braid having glitter, it may look like a ribbon weaving from the air.

“Boucle” – is very popular and widespread fancy yarn. The filament like a lamb: on a thin thread strung curls. The curls and the thread on which they are strung can be either from one type of yarn or from different species.

Fancy yarn is in the form of fringe. The tread looks like mini fringe. Garments knitted from this yarn similar to the fur.

Melange Yarn

Melange is the tread in the yarn dyed in several colours. Previously melange effect was achieved by connecting treads of different colours or shades in the yarn. Joining the white thread and any other colour you can get a marble tread.
The invention of the method of dyeing yarn in different colours allows to get interesting effects in the knitting of the garments. You can get stripped product or a garments manufactured with intricate designs using a blend yarn. The size of the picture and the bands depend on the width of the garments. Yarn is dyed in different colours at equal intervals, that is why wide garments are obtained narrow strips, and on the narrow parts –wide strips.
Buying melange yarn you have already done the half of the job. Melange yarn does not require a complex figure it loves simplicity. Manufacturers produce the yarn of various compositions: wool and artificial, mohair and cotton.